'10 Cloverfield Lane' Viral Marketing Begins: Tagrauto E-Mail And Swamp Pop Soda?

When Matt Reeves' Cloverfield was released in 2008, it came with a viral marking buildup that engulfed those interested in the films. It was one of the first big ARGs (Augmented Reality Games). And it looks like Dan Trachtenberg's 10 Cloverfield Lane will have an ARG/viral marketing campaign, and it appears that the story will continue.

The game spanned a bunch of different website, involved Slusho a Japanese drink that was spotted on a t-shirt in that initial Cloverfield teaser trailer. A drilling company named Tagruato (who has since appeared as an easter egg in other JJ Abrams films like Star Trek) had developed the popular Japanese drink using a mysterious ingredient called "seabed's nectar".

An environmental group called "TIDO Wave" was trying to stop Tagruato from drilling just as they opened the Chaui Station, somewhere close to New York City. A Tagruato whistleblower spy confirmed there was no oil on Chaui Station and that they were keeping a dark secret there.

TIDO Wave tried to find the station but were too late, it had been destroyed just days earlier. Tagruato, trying to cover up what really happened, claimed that a terrorist group named TIDO Wave were responsible.

We experienced a lot of this through the eyes of two protagonists, Teddy Hanssen and his girlfriend Jamie, who was a member of TIDO Wave. The last video she filed was from the night of the attack on New York, right before Rob's goodbye party. Where was Rob going? He was leaving to start a job working for the Slusho company in Japan.

Okay so thats the backstory and here were we are now.

None of the Cloverfield ARG websites have been updated in the last eight years, but last night some people who participated in the original viral or those who e-mailed Tagruato recently began getting a response from Tagruato:

From: 18kagashimad@tagruato.jp

Hello,

Due to new security protocols, this account is no longer active. All correspondence is monitored and will be responded to appropriately.

Thank you for your interest.

Sincerely,

Vanessa Gwon

Director of Public Relations

*Employee of the Month: 2016 January

Now you might think the above e-mail is just a generic auto-responder, but the line under the Vanessa Gwon's title is in bright orange for a reason: to point out this this is a new correspondence created in the year 2016.

So far no clues have been uncovered from this email (the Tagruato address is old, the name Vanessa Gwon doesn't appear in any search engines...etc).

Meanwhile, the Swamp Pop soda drink that is spotted in the initial 10 Cloverfield Lane teaser trailer has led people to a new puzzle, but is it related to the film? Find out, after the jump.

In the 10 Cloverfield Lane teaser trailer, we see them drinking Swamp Pop soda. Cloverfield fanatics quickly discovered that a website exists for Swamp Pop soda where you can order merchandise and soda, much like you could on the original Slusho website. One of the products listed on the website is a "long-term shelter supply" was is sold out:

Note that the the number 4813 also happens to be the number that was punched into the jukebox at the beginning of the trailer.

A Cloverfield Clues reader named Sarah Rose contacted Swamp Pop about the Long Term Shelter Supply and received the following response:

Some Cloverfield fanatics ordered soda from the website and have already received their orders which have included puzzle pieces.

Remember, we see them piecing together a puzzle in the 10 Cloverfield Lane trailer:

The Reddit community have combined their resources and discovered that the puzzle pieces come from a puzzle of the Eiffel Tower.

What does the Eiffel Tower or Paris have to do with this? Possibly nothing.

Thats when I started digging and discovered one thing: this Swamp Pop website is well made because its real. Swamp Pop is not a fake product like Slusho, its a real company with real soda which was used in the film as product placement. So the puzzle pieces and the shelter website listing might just be the soda company's way of playing along. I do not believe this to be part of the ARG/viral marketing.

However, the Tagrauto e-mail seems to suggest that things are starting up again.